Winter Flowers
Hello Plant Lovers!
Recently we have been wondering why some plants choose the coldest, harshest months to show their magic. We know that most trees go dormant in cold weather, and that plants like potatoes and carrots store extra energy underground to survive, so why would a plant flower during winter?
Heather, snowdrops, and the Chinese plum are all plants that begin to flower in January or February, right in the heart of winter. This would seem to be the most in hospitable time, but plant biology is very different from animal biology. Plants regularly lose about half of their weight every time their leaves drop, some die back almost entirely and only survive as underground bulbs. Animals generally can not survive such extreme reduction and regrowth.
Like all living creatures, these winter-blooming plants have carved out a specialized niche for survival. Not many plants can grow under the thick canopy of trees, because light rarely reaches through the leaves to hit the forest floor. Snowdrops have devised a way around this by going dormant in the summer and waking up in the fall. By mid-winter their leaves have absorbed enough light filtering through the tree branches to begin to flower.
Other plants like heather and Chinese plum have developed a special relationship with pollinators. Flowers are a vehicle for reproduction that requires animal interaction. In the spring and summer, any individual species may not get visited by a pollinator that could be happily wandering in a field of a thousand blooms. Winter flowers stand out against a barren landscape. They are guaranteed a visit by every hungry insect and bird in the area, which ensures that their flowers will be pollinated and their seeds will be spread.
We all react to the cold differently, and we hope wherever you are you stay warm and active this winter. Our winter always starts out very busy, and then dies down into a nice lull where we get to design new pieces and develop new techniques. This winter we will be working on the Cacao Tree and the Vanilla Orchid- let us know what you’d like to see added to our collection!
For this season of gratitude we would like to say thank you to all our customers who helped us survive another year. Please take an additional 10% off anything in the store with the code PLANTLOVERS2019 (Coupon no longer available.) We have put some items on sale for this internet shopping weekend, and your discount will work on those items but unfortunately not the Gift Card. Thank you for your interest in our work and for reading these emails :)
Happy holidays everyone!
Sara & Cesar